Apparatus for curing tobacco in barns



Nov. 7, 1961 R. E. MAYO ,00

APPARATUS FOR CURING TOBACCO IN BARNS Filed Dec. 2, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 z 17 Z I ,w/g

1 iyg INVENTOR a? 2 @0911 Mayo ATTORNEY Nov. 7, 1961 Filed Dec. 2, 1957 R. E. MAYO APPARATUS FOR CURING TOBACCO IN BARNS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 RElffi/IVE 169m ATTORNEY.

Nov. 7, 1961 R. E. MAYO 3,007,689

APPARATUS FOR CURING TOBACCO IN BARNS Filed Dec. 2, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 ann 2; u

,{Z I I Y 1/ j I I I A I 0 a C V I g X 50 Z l I Z4 d :Q/f A z? La la I 9 I mmm 3 if I I g INVENTOR fifil/fllzvflMqro \J 11 Bsrfly'fiua f/ n/ X 7 if 26 ATTORNEY.

3,907,689 Patented Nov. 7, 1981 3,007,689 APPARATUS FGR XgNRING TOBACCO IN Reubin E. Mayo, Florence-Mayo Nuway Company, Farmville, N.C. Filed Dec. 2, 1957, Ser. No. 700,167 1 Claim. (Cl. 26319) This invention relates to heating systems, and more particularly to means for generating and distributing heated gases in tobacco barns for curing tobacco hung therein.

An object of the invention is to provide a generator of heated gases located substantially centrally of the barn To this end, I prefer to employ a generator of heated gases comprising a gun type motor-driven blower.

an obstruction interfering with In my improved arthereof, in the form of continuous, wide, upwardly flow- FIG. 1 is a plan view of my improved heating appa ratus, installed in a barn;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation thereof, the barn walls being omitted for the sake of clearness;

G. 3 is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, substantially on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a transverse section substantially on the line 44 of FIG. 3, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of one of the view being taken substantially on the line 4, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation showing the appearance of one of my improved heat spreaders when disconnected from the drum and stacked against the barn wall;

FIG. 7 is a plan view, on an enlarged scale, showing the gun type burner illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view substantially similar to FIG. 2, showing means for supplying additional air under the heating drum;

FIG. 9 is a similar view showing means which I may employ for forcing the hot gases from the drum radially outward into the heat spreaders;

FIG. 10 is a similar view showing this forcing means in combination with a slightly modified arrangement for introducing additional air under the drum, and

l is a fragmentary horizontal section through the means shown in FIGS. 8 and 10 for supplying additional air under the drum.

Referring to the drawings in detail, my improved apparatus comprises a fire pot or combustion chamber 1 X and floor Z.

Surrounding and spaced from this fire pot or combustion chamber is a drum or hood 2 providing an annular space between itself and the combustion chamber, as indicated at 3 in FIG. 8, the bottom of the drum and of this annular space being open.

The drum is provided with a top wall or cover 4, preferably consisting of a metal pan having an upturned an nular flange 4 and filled with a layer of heat insulating material, as indicated at combustion chamber, as best shown in FIG. 7.

Extending radially from the central heat generator are a plurality of elongated seat spreaders 9. In FIG. 1 four of these heat spreaders have been illustrated, and these are sufficient for the smaller size of barns, such as a standard 16 x 16' barn. In the case of larger barns, however, a greater number of heat spreaders, such as six or eight, would be employed.

Each heat spreader 9 is in the form of an inverted trough, shown as V-shaped, having an open bottom and closed ends 10 and 11. It is essential that all parts of the floor of the barn be readily accessible and free from obstructions during the operation of housing or removing the tobacco. For this reason, it is desirable that the heat spreaders 9 be connected with the heating drum 2 by means of quick detachable connections, so that they may be readily taken down when desired. To this end, I provide a plurality of outlets 12 defined by wall members projecting radially from the side of the drum 2 just underneath the top wall or cover thereof. These outlets are shown as of rectangular section, having open bottoms. In order to control the flow of hot gases through these outlets, I preferably provide a swinging damper 13 mounted on a shaft 14 journaled in the wall members defining the sides of the outlet so that its angular position may be adjusted as desired. The shaft 14 is extended at one side and bent over to form a bail or hook 15, as clearly shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and adjacent the shaft 14 one of the wall members defining a side of the outlet is formed with an arcuate series of openings 16. It will be readily understood that the free end of hook 15 may be engaged in any desired one of the holes 16 so as to hold or lock the damper in the desired adjusted position.

The inner end wall 10 of each heat spreader is formed with a notch 10 adapted to fit over the walls defining the outlet 12, as shown in FIG. 4, and the top of the heat spreader fits under the overhanging edge of the top wall or cover 4 of the drum. To secure the heat spreader in place, a pin 17 is provided having a bentover end which embraces the flange 1 of the cover, as shown in FIG. 1, this pin extending down through registering holes in the cover and in the top of the heat spreader, as indicated at 18.

When it is desired to remove the heat spreaders, all that is necessary is to pull out the pins 17, and the heat spreaders can be readily slid off of the walls defining the outlets.

In order to support the outer ends of the heat spreaders, I provide legs 19 resting on the floor of the barn. As shown in FIG. 2, these legs may be of U-shape having a bottom portion 19 and arms which extend upwardly one on either side of the heat spreader, these arms being cross braced as indicated at 20. The upper ends of the arms are pivoted on bolts 22 working through slots 21 in the arms. This serves two functions. In the first place, by loosening the bolt 22 the heat spreader may be adjusted vertically by means of the slots 21 so as to vary the height of the outer end thereof. In the second place, when the heat spreaders are disconnected from the central drum, the legs may be folded about the pivot bolts 22 and the heat spreaders stacked endwise on the floor and against the wall of the barn, as shown in FIG. 6, thus being entirely out of the way. The legs are preferably attached to the heat spreaders near the midpoint thereof, so that they may be conveniently folded, as shown in FIG. 6.

It will be understood that the heat spreaders 9 are generally horizontal but that their outer ends can be raised or lowered as desired by means of the pin and slot connections 21, 22 so that they may be inclined slightly upwardly or downwardly. Since the heated gases coming from the drum 2 through the outlets 12 tend to rise, the extent to which they flow along the heat spreaders depends upon the slope or inclination thereof. If the outer ends are elevated to a point slightly above the height of the inner ends, then the heated gases will tend to flow outwardly more rapidly.

In any event, it will be noted that, due to the fact that the outer ends are closed by the walls 1-1, the hot gases are more or less trapped within the heat spreaders and the only way they can escape is by flowing out from under the edges of the sides and end walls of the heat spreaders. The end walls 11 may be made either relatively wide or deep, or relatively narrow, in accordance with requirements. Their width determines the amount of heat discharged from the end, as compared with the sides of the heat spreader.

As a result of this, it will be seen that the hot gases are discharged from the sides of the heat spreaders in the form of thin, wide upwardly flowing streams, each stream being continuous throughout its width, and the width of the streams extending radially from the heat drum to the outer ends of the heat Spreaders.

By virtue of the gases being discharged in the form of these wide streams disposed radially of the central drum, they are distributed throughout the barn with unusual uniformity.

It will be understood that in the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, air enters under the lower edge of the drum 2 and flows upwardly through the annular space 3 at the top of the combustion chamber, where it mixes with the hot products of combustion escaping from such chamber, and this mixture then flows outwardly through the outlets 12 and heat spreaders 9 as above described.

In order to increase this flow of air up under the drum 2, I may use a motor-driven blower 25 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 11. A horizontal intake pipe 23 is provided, one end of which extends out through the barn wall as indicated at 23 in FIG. 11, while the other end opens into the barn as shown at 23 A branch pipe 24 extends from the pipe 23 to the blower 25 and this blower delivers the air through a pipe 26 having an upturned end 26 under the hood 2. I provide a pivoted damper 27 in the pipe 23 at its junction with the branch pipe 24. When the damper is in the position shown in full lines in FIG. 11, air is drawn into the blower from inside the barn through the end 23* of the pipe, while if the damper is swung to the position shown in the dotted lines, air is drawn from outside of the barn through the end 23* of the pipe 23. If the damper is moved to an intermediate position, some of the air drawn in by the blower will come from inside of the barn and some from the outside. Thus, the relative amounts. of inside and outside air delivered to the blower may be regulated as desired.

While, in the arrangements so far described, the hot gases from the top of the drum fiow naturally out through the heat spreaders 9 by reason of convection, I may provide power means for forcing these hot gases out into the spreaders more rapidly. This is shown in FIG. 9, in which I provide a fan 28 of the centrifugal type mounted on a vertical shaft driven by a motor 29, supported on the top or cover 4 of the drum, the fan operating in a horizontal plane at a point just below this cover. This fan may advantageously be of the same type as that of the blower 5 and serves to force the hot gases radially outwardly from the center of the drum.

In FIG. 10, I have shown a slightly modified construction of the air delivery pipe 26, in that it has a straight end which discharges against the side wall of the combustion chamber at a point below the bottom edge of the drum 2.

While, as shown in FIG. 8, this air delivery pipe 26 may be used alone, and while, as shown in FIG. 9, the centrifugal fan 28 may be used alone, I may, if desired, employ both of these features in combination, as shown in FIG. 10. This results in an exceptionally efiicient arrangement.

What I claim is:

In a tobacco curing system for tobacco barns, the combination with a substantially centrally located heat gen- 5 erator, including a vertical drum, of a plurality of heat spreaders extending radially from said drum, each of said spreaders comprising an elongated inverted trough having longitudinally-extending side edges, each of said troughs being open at the bottom and extending from a point closely adjacent said drum to a point adapted to be near a wall of said barn, means for detachably connecting the inner end of each spreader to said drum to receive heated gases therefrom and to permit ready detachment of each spreader from said drum, the outer end of each spreader being, closed by an irnperforate end Wall the lower edge of which extends h el-11w the level of the longitudinallyextending side edges of each spreader, whereby the heated gases flowing along each spreader escape from under the longitudinally-extending side edges thereof, and means extending from each spreader adapted to reach the floor of the barn for supporting the outer ends of said Spreaders from the barn floor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Jones July 1, 1958 

